Final Filming Before Deadline

Sunday 21st October I plan to finalise my filming.

Get all the bedroom scenes DONE and then go out to the used car lot and film the few shots of my character looking around.

Because I am my character I will have help with the camera but my storyboards have exactly what I want on them. It is very clear and my camera operator will know what to film and which angles. I will firstly set up the camera and tripod and position the camera in the correct place(s), setting up the shot is necessary as otherwise the framing maybe wrong and it could waste time having to re-do them and do pick up shots at a later date.

I need to make sure that I get all these done by Sunday afternoon...otherwise I will miss the deadline.

Filming Update

Okay. So this week I had problems accessing 'Blogger' at home so I have had to wait until now to post.
Sunday 14th October I spent the afternoon filming my driving footage. We went to the locations, marked on a previous post, and spent the time re-shooting with my character in the shots.

As I am my own character I could not work the camera at all times. This meant I needed to set up the shits and have detailed instructions for my camera person to follow.

Apart from the occasional glimpse of the very edge of the car window, the shots look good and I am happy with how it went. If I am really careful I can crop the shots so that the car window is not seen.

This is to show that I have re-shot the scenes with my actor in there.

I am off to America with the school next week so I have 1 final day of filming to do before I leave.

Reverse Music Video...With Lip Sync.

This is a concept music video...

My original idea was to have certain lyrics picked out by the main character using lip syncing. I would need him to sing the lyrics backwards and this could be really difficult.

This video shows how it can work well but I don't think I have to time to do this. It is a great idea. I think if I had more time I would experiment with how it may work.

I am going to research on the internet about websites where you can learn to speak backwards. If this is successful I may attempt it.

Today...

Today I discovered there was a problem with my storyboard. I have not completely finished it. I need to  finish the last few scenes. It shouldn't take too long but I will publish some photos of the draft once I have finished.

Then all that needs to happen is a photo storyboard and I am ready to film.

Permission from Garage

Today I spoke to the manager at 'Cracknells' - the garage in which I would like to film in.

I wanted to make sure it was okay to film around the garage location on a Sunday and that if he saw me I am not being suspicious.

He said it was fine. The garage will be closed so there will not be anyone about. This is good as there will be no one to get in the way - unfortunately it means that the roll up garage door won't be open but that doesn't matter. As long as I don't show the door then it will work absolutely fine.

Locations

I have chosen locations close to home. Local locations mean that I do not have to spend money commuting and it means that if there is a problem, I can get to the place easy to do any overdubs or re-takes.

The location, for the driving shots, is about 1 mile away from my house -

The road is relatively straight and there is a well placed layby where the car can indicate and pull into.

The location for the bedroom and the shots of my character walking out of the house are actually in my house. My character is going to be me as it will be so much easier than having to mess about making sure people are free.

This house is the one I will be using. Where the woman is with a dog is about where I will be stood with a camera, framing the house and part of the garage. The camera will track the character along the garden path to the blue car. There will be my marked car and he will get in and drive off. 

The location for the garage scene is just around the corner from my house. 

My character will be stood near petrol price sign and the 'mechanic' will drive the car around from the rear of the garage (just further than the petrol pumps) towards my character. 

That is all. These are my three main location and they are all within a very short distance from each other. 

Andrew Goodwin

We have been studying a theorist called Andrew Goodwin and the importance/influence or his theories in music videos.

Goodwin tells us of common themes that he believes to define a music video, these are;

1 - Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
- Things that happen in the video, dance moves, items within the mise-en-scene, costume, and themes of the video link with the lyrics of the song.Sometimes literally the lyrics are acted out. This is used to show the meaning behind the lyrics/song.

2 - Relationship between the music and the visuals.

- The editing pace, cuts and effects are in time to the beat of the song. Also there may be a moment where things within the scene may represent instruments.

3 - Significant shots of the artists -  Demands of the record label mean that excessive use of close ups of the artist can occur. This creates an image of the artist and significant shots may occur across different music videos.
- This allows the record label to promote a set image for the band, which will help target audiences empathise with the band.


4 - Genre characteristics AKA 'iconography'

Certain characteristics (e.g movements, costume, dialogue) define the different genres of the band/artist. There are expectations that these moments happen in all of the artists music videos. It is used for a band/artist to become identifiable.

5 - Intertexual references.

- Referring to other forms of media within the video, for example television or films, other music videos, other artists - there are many forms of intertextuality.

6 -  Objectification

The female body is often objectified, seen as the voyeuristic view of the 'males' many close up shots of parts of the female body are seen as a form to attract a male audience.

Preliminary Filming

Because of the problems with the practicality of getting a camera mount, I needed to go out on location and film some experimental shots to make sure I can capture some usable footage.

This is how it turned out...

I think this worked well.

The one problem I had was the speed of the 'camera car'. It was too quick at 30mph so next time I will drive at 20 mph for the passing shots otherwise it speeds past too fast and the framing is ruined.

Another thing was getting the correct framing whilst moving. It was difficult to adjust whilst on the move. Next time driving slower will help.

The positive thing was that i found I could use the zoom feature to create the effect of the car speeding off. Timed right and this will work well.

I believe this is going to work well. As long as it is not rushed and I concentrate on the correct framing to not capture reflections or such like, this will look good.

Iconic Music Video From Before I Was Born

U2 - Where The Streets Have No Name

I have chosen this an an example of an iconic music video. When U2 performed this on top of a building on a main street in Los Angeles, it caused a huge stir and with 30, 000 people expected to show up there was no wonder the police had a freak out.

Even this performance video has clean examples of 'Goodwin 7'.   There are a number of iconic shots of the lead singer 'Bono'. This certain shot is of him singing with the famous Los Angeles skyscrapers in the background. 

This shot is particularly interesting as it shows a camera actually in shot. It's not a fake this is a real camera filming. U2 have used this music video to push boundaries turning a music video into almost a piece of film. Instead of just pretending to sing with a mock up of a band they have used real footage from the news and   and by doing this through the biggest media company in America they had an almost guaranteed chance of becoming successful.

This video was the first real attempt at pushing boundaries to the extreme and this makes it a perfect example of an ICONIC music video.  

Problems

Unfortunately I can not use the camera mount as It will be delivered too late into the filming process and the deadline is too tight to risk it. This means I need to find a different way to produce the shots of the moving car and of passing the car on the road.

The way I plan to do this is to find a car with a sunroof and stand up/lift the camera on a tripod through the sunroof. As long as I set the framing right this shouldn't be a problem.

For the passing the car I will roll down the passenger window and make sure I do not get any reflections of the camera in the car or an interior shots of the 'camera car'. I am also going to add an additional shot, this will be a still shot from across the other side of the road. Just as an extra angle if there is a real problem with filming.

Here are the pictures of the shots I want to achieve.

 If shot through the windscreen of the 'camera car' there will be reflections so to overcome this I will roll down the window and make sure the framing is correct.

---->                                                                    For this shot I want to use a variety of different     camera angles. This will be done by a passing shot of the car on the side of the road, I will again roll down the passenger window  to achieve this. 

Also I want to include a static shot, with the camera stationed the opposite of the road. 

This is the shot section that I want to include the sunroof. I will attach the camera to a tripod (very securely) frame the shot and make sure it stays sturdy.

Camera Car Mount

As I have established there is an issue with me not having a camera car mount. I have looked at a few YouTube videos and this one seems to be the best of how to home make one...




This seems to be the quickest way and cheapest way. It also seems pretty strong. This may be how I will experiment. If this doesn't work I will go back and have to compromise by using shots inside the camera car.

Storyboard first update

Today I finished my shot plan and my first draft storyboard. I am really not much of an artist so I have decided that I will now take this and produce a storyboard made from pictures I will take in the locations.

The locations are nearby so it will be easy to re-produce. There is one down fall in that I will have to find all my props early, however for this video it should be simple as I am using all my own props that I have around the house so they shouldn't be too hard to find.

As some of my shots will be taken from inside a moving car (camera car) behind my characters car this means I need to research into how I will do this effectively. I have a few ideas but need to research them so I have a deeper understanding.


Here are some of my ideas -

This is an idea that works with suction cups. They stick to the bonnet of the car and are incredibly secure. Having one of these would assure that I wouldn't get a glimpse of the reflection in the windscreen or of the interior of the camera car.
HOWEVER - This is very expensive! I do not have to budget to be able to afford this.









Another option is to homemake a mount, this would assure I do not get bad shots, but if I am not careful it could break and/or not be strong enough and break to camera. This would not be good news. Even though I am not going to be driving fast it is still an issue that i need to be aware of. Also there is a tight deadline and not a huge amount of time to carefully craft this piece of technology.

The next thing I could do would be to compromise and use well designed camera angles within the camera car. I will have to experiment if I did this.